Fans of the Nook Color were none too pleased when I called it a great e-reader and a so-so tablet. Well, Barnes & Noble has upgraded last year’s “ereader with some tablet features” and announced a proper Android tablet that will be in stores this holiday season.

The Barnes & Noble NOOK Tablet is still a heavily-customized version of Android. It also has the same outer design; however, there’s a big upgrade in terms of hardware. The NOOK Tablet has a 1 GHz TI OMAP4 dual-core processor, 1 GB RAM, 11.5 hours of reading/9 hours of video, 16 GB of internal memory, and a 7-inch VividView touchscreen.

NOOK comes pre-loaded with several Nook Apps from Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, Sudoku, Nook Friends, and email. Third party apps will continue to be delivered through the NOOK Store rather than the Android Market. For a detailed look at upcoming features and specs, as well as to pre-order the device for it November 18 availability, visit BarnesanNoble.com

So, knowing that the Nook Tablet is coming, what will interested tablet owners do? Those willing to hack away at the Nook Color seem happy, but they are limited to what those with Honeycomb/Ice Cream Sandwich devices can aspire to. However, Honeycomb has not proven enticing enough to make everyone spend twice as much as the budget-friendly Nook. An even bigger threat will be the Amazon Kindle Fire, which comes in at a cheaper price with less hardware power but still very capable. And it offers plenty of cloud services and options to boot.